(Photo from Facebook page)
A question popped into a group of friends’ minds and they decided to see the answer for themselves: “What if Spiderman landed in Egypt?!”
(Photo from Facebook page)
In a photo session, they spotted peoples’ reaction towards having a superhero sharing their normal life events with them and facing what they typically deal with.
“We struggle in everything we do in Egypt in a way that even if a superhero came he wouldn’t be able to handle it,” said Hossam Atef the photographer of the session. “And that’s what I wanted to deliver with these pictures I took and their ideas.”
The 20 year-old student in the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management took photos in several areas around Cairo including Bolak El-Dakrour, Downtown, and El-Sayeda Zeinab, to capture how people would deal with his friend dressed in a Spiderman costume.
From a simple walk down the street to riding public transport, Egyptians live a very hard lifestyle that sometimes reaches an unbearable limit, said Atef.
As for peoples’ reactions, they ranged from the disbelief of the elders to the happiness of the children. “Some old people really thought that Spiderman is an agent Al-Sisi sent to solve people’s problems and they started yelling in happiness with promises they knew he’d never break,” said Atef.
(Photo from Facebook page)
On the other hands, children started saying that miracles can come true now after Spiderman turned to be real, added Atef.
Atef Saad – or Spiderman as he has been called ever since he analysed the peoples’ reactions – said that “people need to believe there’s a superhero that can save them”.
The team shot the session in seven days and posted 25 pictures on their Facebook page.
The journey of taking the pictures wasn’t easygoing all the time, as they were stopped several times by police to check their identity and to investigate the reasons for the photography session.
“One police officer accused us with treason and foreign funding,“ said Atef.
“Even if a superhero came to Egypt, he wouldn’t be able to solve all of its problems,” added Saad.
